Happy Hair Hippie Sasha Allen Balances a Busy Life

Age: 27

Hometown: New York City. “I was born and raised right here in Harlem.”

Currently: Making her Broadway debut singing the opening verse of “Aquarius,” then rocking out in “White Boys” as Dionne in the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Hair.

Talented Tot: The granddaughter and niece of classical pianists, Allen began studying the instrument at an early age at Manhattan School of Music. But when her mother heard little Sasha singing along with the radio, she steered her toward children’s theater. By the time Allen was a freshman at LaGuardia High School (made famous in Fame), she snagged a role in the unsuccessful D.C. premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind. “She never pushed me,” Allen says of her mom, now a school principal, “she just noticed what I was interested in. I don’t know where I would be now if she hadn’t been such an attentive mother.”

Off the Record: While appearing in print ads, the precocious Allen signed a recording deal at 17 with Electra Records and was later signed by Arista Records. Unfortunately, her longed-for album never came together. “I got caught up in one of those crossroads moments in the record business,” she says now. “It was heartbreaking, because singing is what comes most naturally to me.” Luckily, while she was attending Hunter College, Allen got a call from writer/director Todd Graff asking her to join the cast of a film she’d done a reading of several years earlier: Camp.

Screen to Stage: Released in 2003, Camp became a cult hit beloved by musical theater fans. For Allen, the important thing was meeting one of her best friends, actor Steven Cutts, who later joined the cast of Hairspray. As for Camp-er Robin de Jesus, who went on to a Tony nomination in In the Heights, “We see each other on the train all the time,” she says with a laugh. Allen eventually became a sought-after backup singer for the likes of Christina Aguilera, John Legend, her junior high classmate Alicia Keys and Babyface. “In the beginning, you think they’re untouchable,” she says of pop superstars, “but then you get to know them, and they’re just people—people who go into huge arenas filled with other people screaming their name!”

Mother Love: Allen shares her life with her three-year-old daughter, Sierra. “She’s what keeps me going,” the young actress says proudly. “She has grounded me so much. You don’t realize how much love you really have inside of you until you have a baby.” Though she’s a single mom, Allen credits her large and loving extended family, “my mother, my dad, my grandmother, my brother, my aunties,” for their help with Sierra. “It’s never possible to work and have a child unless you have a lot of support or a lot of money,” she says. “I don’t have a lot of money, but I have a lot of love in my life.”

This Is the Dawning: To take advantage of singing opportunities, Allen moved to Los Angeles for a while, but was lured back to audition for the Broadway transfer of Hair. “My brother [actor Julian Joseph] and I had a long conversation, and I said, ‘I think I want to do theater.’ He said, ‘That’s a great idea—you’ll get the best of all the things you like to do.’” And how: Allen now starts the show with her electrifying version of “Aquarius” (catch it on Late Night with David Letterman via You Tube) and frolics in the aisles of the Al Hirschfeld Theatre every night. “Who knew that Hair was going to be so big?” she reflects. “I had no idea. But it was the right time for my daughter and me to come home.”

Harmony and Understanding: In addition to being featured on Letterman and meeting celebrity audience members such as her personal idol, Aretha Franklin (“I was super-shy; I didn’t talk to her!”), Allen had the thrill of sharing the stage with dozens of stars during the opening number at the 2009 Tony Awards. “Oh my goodness!” she exclaims of standing within spitting distance of Liza Minnelli, Dolly Parton and Brian d’Arcy James as Shrek. “That was brand new to me; it was like, ‘I can’t breathe.’” Closing in on the six-month mark on Broadway, Allen is doing prep work for a solo CD and hopes to continue in musicals. “I would like to have a bigger part and see if I can do it,” she says modestly. “In the music world, people tell you who you should be; in the theater, you get to morph into a character, and I really like that.”